If you have a Nodeka-related question you'd like to see answered in a future Featured Questions article, just leave a blog comment or e-mail it to me!
Featured Questions #8:
A single death takes ALL of your renown.. Why not only a portion?
It's basically a "death penalty" for losing in PvP. If you don't manage to win or escape, you lose the (usually 5%) renown benefit to gold and experience until you can build that renown back up. (It takes a little over four hours outside of a safe-room to build your renown back up to the base 5% level.))
In invasion, is the reward of killing your own ogre the same as assisting someone killing theirs? Or has it a lower count. And what if we kill a bigger ogre do we get a higher reward count?
The specifics of the Invasion contribution system are a bit complex, and it's intentional that I avoid sharing many details when talking about it. Rest assured that I try my best to design and tweak these systems with fairness in mind; if there's a glaring issue, you should definitely bring it up, but as long as the system is working fairly, my response to these questions will generally be "don't worry about it, the more you participate, the better your contribution". =)
Do aura affects stack with other similar abilities? i.e. Let's just say I had what appears to be a 25% lag reduction that the zmo aura grants - would that also stack with time bending if I had it?
Yes, empyreal striding stacks with other similar effects, in the same way that time-bending and the two time-walker abilities stack (multiplicative, as is usual for Nodeka). The various auras were designed and tested with these types of interaction in mind.
You'd mentioned that the eventuality of +aura equipment coming in. Are those pieces of equipment already accessible? Are scrolls already accessible too? Spoils of war, any update on progress, when it will be out, ideas of what the spoils may be?
Runed equipment and scrolls aren't accessible yet; you'll see them first as rare 'spoils of war' benefits. I don't want to spoil the 'spoils of war' too much; they're on my active plate, so you shouldn't have to wait too long for stuff to start appearing. (The primary delay, other than sharing development time with newbie improvements, is that I'm still working on the design side and trying to solidly delineate precisely what rewards I want to appear where. I'm currently designing four different reward sets - Invasion spoils, special Citadels, a new event, and general PvP. The primary design issue here is that I don't want to just haphazardly throw out rewards for each of them - each system needs to be logical and compelling.)
Is it intentional that auras sometimes shift to the 'fringe' auras (i.e. the cyclopean ones) when an inscription is empowered?
Absolutely. It is the only way (outside of the cyclopean riddle) to obtain these auras, since you can't empower them manually. There are definitely reasons for this. =)
Is it possible to program into one ability, multiple counterattacks of the same type?
Of course. =) I implemented a sorcerer + daja ability (wings of seraphic fire) which essentially did that, but it got tweaked and eventually became unearthly rapture instead. I like the idea of nasty (perhaps stacking) reactive shields (as opposed to the "buff" type which are up 50% of the time or so, which seem less strategic). Note that there are more and more ways to counteract shields nowadays, as well - definitely intentional. =)
I'm not sure if this question is in the spirit of "Featured Questions", but I was curious if Nodeka tracks any statistics, in particular to aid in class balancing?
Nodeka creates and retains numerous logs of various types, for administrative and rule-enforcement purposes. In addition to Nodeka's internal logging, I do a lot of monitoring (both manual and automated) between and during projects (I have a number of scripts set up for this purpose). This is where I get my initial assessments; I then have the capability of running tests locally to verify things (which is what I do for every update - in fact, testing and design both take far, far more time than any actual implementation).
Let's consider a char that is blackened, cloaked, and blended. Rank affects come up, and this person now get's a 30% invisible affect. Suppose there is another char with more than 131% see visible. For the blackened-cloaked-blended: is there an overall precedence in the ability to not be seen by the invis char? With that 30% aff and the 131% sight, will the see-invis char always get to see the otherwise hidden char? Thanks for your 100% inSIGHTs!
Keep in mind, first of all, that 'see invisible' cannot reveal a blackened character. The 'see invisible' effect only works on invisibility and the 'see cloaked' effect only works on cloak. (The only viewer-based way to break through blackened, currently, is empyreal vigilance. Note that having the forced visibility effect can force the subject to be visible regardless of the hiding source, and thus can nullify blackened.)
Vision works like this: for each hiding effect that the "hider" possesses, roll its percentage. If it succeeds, the "viewer" gets to check against his or her matching vision effects, if any, to counter the hiding effect success. If any hiding effect goes through uncountered, the hider is hidden from sight.
Thus, if the viewer has 131% chance to see invisible, then any invisibility effect on the hider would be countered every single time (thus, invisibility could never hide him or her from the viewer). Having more than 100% does nothing special; nor does this chance to see invisible have any effect on other hiding effect types, such as cloak.
Re: Targeting.. Way it seems now, I need to almost be in the same room in order for target to work.. Any chance of a skill that can boost the distance? Maybe make it only increase it very little when at 100%, but can prac beyond 100% to increase that distance?.. Or instead of an automatic skill.. make it have a high prevent time, so its not something that is just kept up all the time.. High prevent, short active time.
Targeting range is slightly shorter on average, currently (especially since people are far more likely to stack strength than learn curve - imagine that!). I'm working on new types of bonuses to add to equipment (such as the runes which were implemented but are not yet accessible), and you'll definitely see more learn curve equipment out there in the future (and perhaps plain +target range as well). When I go back to tweak the races a bit, I'll also differentiate their learn curves in order to make some into excellent targeters. =)
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
Game update: 9/10
In the past, I've tried to strike a balance between "informative", "complete", and "readable" whenever posting live update news in the Message of the Day. I've now decided to split those goals between the MotD itself and this blog.
As I've mentioned in the 9/10 MotD entry, I will be attempting to keep each future MotD entry extremely brief (no longer than a single line per change, when possible). This should help to reduce "colossal paragraph syndrome", making the MotD easier to browse and making sure important changes don't get lost in the scroll.
In the interest of keeping you informed, I will now be posting a "Game Update" article on this blog whenever a non-trivial MotD update occurs (each reboot, generally). In these updates, I will talk about each of the changes and new features, letting you know how things work, why things have changed, and what each entry means.
Cinderskein:
In this evening's update, the biggest news is the new sorcerer spell - cinderskein. Available to sorcerers of all remort tiers, this one's a pretty cool new ability - it allows the sorcerer to "mark" a number of nearby targets with special runes, and then to unleash a web of fiery rays which will fry anyone who was thus marked. The sorcerer needs to raise her magus war-shell before she can use cinderskein, however - it's that dangerous. =)
The kink is that the web feeds on itself - launching a single heat ray will only do moderate damage, whereas launching several at once will cause each individual ray to be much stronger. Thus, the more targets which the sorcerer "marks" before pressing the detonate button, the more damage each target will take.
The "marking" process can be tricky. Whenever a victim is marked, a targeting rune is drawn on the ground where he is standing (and he gains a "cinderskein target" in his affects list). If the victim leaves the room before the heat rays are launched, the heat rays will not be able to seek him out (they strike the ground where he used to be instead).
The sorcerer's constitution determines how many targets she can strike at once (newbie sorcerers can only handle two targets). The targeting runes fade quickly, but their duration increases with constitution as well (to ensure that they last long enough for the sorcerer to mark enough targets to reach her potential limit).
Targeting:
The 'target' command's range is now based on learn curve. Previously, it used the same range calculation as the 'throw' command (which is strength-based).
Although it might be argued that it would be convenient to have 'throw' and 'target' share the same range calculation, this convenience would be somewhat arbitrary given that other variants may use different statistics to calculate their range (for example, telekinetic projection's range is intellect-based).
Colossal Smiting:
Previously, colossal smiting was slightly more accurate than a normal attack. I've changed it to be slightly less accurate than a normal attack instead; it's not a big change, but grey trolls make up 13-20% of the current population at any given time, and I feel this is a much more lenient and logical way to address the racial's damage output than a reduction in damage.
Vicious Fist mastery:
Just a small monk buff - I've slightly improved the rate at which vicious fist mastery beyond 100% adds to the damage of the monk's bare-hand attacks.
"radius" attacks:
There was an issue with many "radius"-type area-of-effect attacks, in which one potential target was always "removed" from the list of targets to attack. (This could only occur to a potential target in a different room - never in the same room.)
While this issue wasn't very noticeable when attacking a ton of targets at once, it became much more apparent in PvP situations where a player tried to strike a nearby victim with a radius-attack. If that victim was the only potential target in range (and he wasn't in the same room as the attacker), he would always be the removed from the list of potential targets - thus, radius attacks would always "whiff" and hit nothing in these situations.
This update should fix this behavior.
As I've mentioned in the 9/10 MotD entry, I will be attempting to keep each future MotD entry extremely brief (no longer than a single line per change, when possible). This should help to reduce "colossal paragraph syndrome", making the MotD easier to browse and making sure important changes don't get lost in the scroll.
In the interest of keeping you informed, I will now be posting a "Game Update" article on this blog whenever a non-trivial MotD update occurs (each reboot, generally). In these updates, I will talk about each of the changes and new features, letting you know how things work, why things have changed, and what each entry means.
Cinderskein:
In this evening's update, the biggest news is the new sorcerer spell - cinderskein. Available to sorcerers of all remort tiers, this one's a pretty cool new ability - it allows the sorcerer to "mark" a number of nearby targets with special runes, and then to unleash a web of fiery rays which will fry anyone who was thus marked. The sorcerer needs to raise her magus war-shell before she can use cinderskein, however - it's that dangerous. =)
The kink is that the web feeds on itself - launching a single heat ray will only do moderate damage, whereas launching several at once will cause each individual ray to be much stronger. Thus, the more targets which the sorcerer "marks" before pressing the detonate button, the more damage each target will take.
The "marking" process can be tricky. Whenever a victim is marked, a targeting rune is drawn on the ground where he is standing (and he gains a "cinderskein target" in his affects list). If the victim leaves the room before the heat rays are launched, the heat rays will not be able to seek him out (they strike the ground where he used to be instead).
The sorcerer's constitution determines how many targets she can strike at once (newbie sorcerers can only handle two targets). The targeting runes fade quickly, but their duration increases with constitution as well (to ensure that they last long enough for the sorcerer to mark enough targets to reach her potential limit).
Targeting:
The 'target' command's range is now based on learn curve. Previously, it used the same range calculation as the 'throw' command (which is strength-based).
Although it might be argued that it would be convenient to have 'throw' and 'target' share the same range calculation, this convenience would be somewhat arbitrary given that other variants may use different statistics to calculate their range (for example, telekinetic projection's range is intellect-based).
Colossal Smiting:
Previously, colossal smiting was slightly more accurate than a normal attack. I've changed it to be slightly less accurate than a normal attack instead; it's not a big change, but grey trolls make up 13-20% of the current population at any given time, and I feel this is a much more lenient and logical way to address the racial's damage output than a reduction in damage.
Vicious Fist mastery:
Just a small monk buff - I've slightly improved the rate at which vicious fist mastery beyond 100% adds to the damage of the monk's bare-hand attacks.
"radius" attacks:
There was an issue with many "radius"-type area-of-effect attacks, in which one potential target was always "removed" from the list of targets to attack. (This could only occur to a potential target in a different room - never in the same room.)
While this issue wasn't very noticeable when attacking a ton of targets at once, it became much more apparent in PvP situations where a player tried to strike a nearby victim with a radius-attack. If that victim was the only potential target in range (and he wasn't in the same room as the attacker), he would always be the removed from the list of potential targets - thus, radius attacks would always "whiff" and hit nothing in these situations.
This update should fix this behavior.
Featured Questions #7
Sorry for the delay - here's the next installment of Featured Questions!
Featured Questions #7:
If elemental resistance is 50, and other normal types reduce 20, where does this land supreme resistance and is it both elemental and non-elemental resistance?
Supreme resistance is not considered an elemental resistance. It will trigger on any damage type, and will always provide 20% damage reduction when triggered.
Will practicing impairments above 100% increase the chances for target to fail "impairment break" checks? and does the ninja's hakanai shouten perfect stun denies any "impairment break" check?
Currently, the chance to land an impairment is an attacker-victim comparison, but once an impairment lands, only the victim's stats matter. Thus, stun mastery and hakanai shouten affect stun's chance to land successfully. However, once a victim is stunned, the only thing that alters the victim's chance to "break" it is the victim's constitution.
Does the Silver Elf racial healing boost stack with Dajain Healer's 'Augmented Divine Healing'?
Augmented divine healing provides the same effect as the silver elf's racial healing. As long as either one triggers, your healing is doubled. (It cannot be applied more than once per heal - you cannot get a quadruple heal with multiple augmented healing effects.)
Here's a technical question. I was randomly looking at different skills and noticed warp reality and how it can be used 'through' such things as temple touch. If the person is suffering lag while crippled, etc., then how abilities like warp reality go 'through it' ?
Impairment does not actually add lag to a person (currently, only a few abilities can inflict lag on others - inharmonix helix, rite of sundering, and trial of aggression). Every attack or action that an impaired victim attempts must succeed against a specific "break chance"; otherwise, it fails. Some impairments are much harder to break than others (and each checks against a specific victim stat when rolling this break chance). Temple touch provides no break chance.
Certain abilities (such as warp reality) and attacks (such as shape-of-the-mind fist and most mental attacks) cannot be stopped by an impairment. These abilities and attacks automatically succeed on their break chance 100% of the time. (They can even break through impairments which normally do not provide a break chance, such as temple touch.)
Whim, you've mentioned before of an event called Vl'lakian Ramparts. Could you give a teaser on what it is about? How it would help the gameplay of nodeka, how it will promote less botting, and uniqueness to the game.
The Ramparts are just a logical extension of the internal AI improvements I've been implementing with each update, as well as the events that have been implemented so far (Invasion, Sigil Cits, Orator missions). It's a group-based event, with a more rigid structure than the current Invasions (i.e., a linear progression and strict group limits). The newbie improvements, some pvp improvements, and another smaller-scale event will probably be released before the Ramparts surface. (A number of outside responsibilities surfaced in the past week and a half which ate into my development time, but progress should be back on track shortly. =))
Going on for strike from the shadows, approximately how many % more damage are we looking at (while flanking) for training over 100%?
Strike from the shadows provides a flat damage increase, not a percentage-based increase. It's a pretty good number. =)
Where's the [new spell] you said was coming?
It's working, but I'm still tweaking it. I didn't quite like the original implementation; it's an important spell in terms of what I want it to do and a bit tricky to design correctly. (I want it to be a fairly effective sorcerer spell, which is potentially useful in both pvp and as a somewhat non-traditional running tool, which requires the use of the magus war-shell.)
Can you talk about the Phase of the Suns and Solar Poliir?
Sure - sunbind and solar-flame can only be used during the daytime (or a nighttime hour which is very close to daytime). The Phase of the Suns displayed via the 'time' command shows you the current Nodeka hour. There are 30 hours in a Nodeka day; nighttime hits sometime around the 20th hour. =)
How do you calculate the value of damage gained when [element of surprise] lands?
Element of surprise simply turns your attacks into flanking attacks. The amount of bonus you gain from flanking depends on your victim (players who focus on +dam over other stats tend to get flanked harder) - flanking attacks tend to be quite accurate with a fair damage bonus. If your attack gains any special bonus while flanking (such as the precision pierce from archer's competence, which deals double damage while flanking), element of surprise will trigger that as well.
Featured Questions #7:
If elemental resistance is 50, and other normal types reduce 20, where does this land supreme resistance and is it both elemental and non-elemental resistance?
Supreme resistance is not considered an elemental resistance. It will trigger on any damage type, and will always provide 20% damage reduction when triggered.
Will practicing impairments above 100% increase the chances for target to fail "impairment break" checks? and does the ninja's hakanai shouten perfect stun denies any "impairment break" check?
Currently, the chance to land an impairment is an attacker-victim comparison, but once an impairment lands, only the victim's stats matter. Thus, stun mastery and hakanai shouten affect stun's chance to land successfully. However, once a victim is stunned, the only thing that alters the victim's chance to "break" it is the victim's constitution.
Does the Silver Elf racial healing boost stack with Dajain Healer's 'Augmented Divine Healing'?
Augmented divine healing provides the same effect as the silver elf's racial healing. As long as either one triggers, your healing is doubled. (It cannot be applied more than once per heal - you cannot get a quadruple heal with multiple augmented healing effects.)
Here's a technical question. I was randomly looking at different skills and noticed warp reality and how it can be used 'through' such things as temple touch. If the person is suffering lag while crippled, etc., then how abilities like warp reality go 'through it' ?
Impairment does not actually add lag to a person (currently, only a few abilities can inflict lag on others - inharmonix helix, rite of sundering, and trial of aggression). Every attack or action that an impaired victim attempts must succeed against a specific "break chance"; otherwise, it fails. Some impairments are much harder to break than others (and each checks against a specific victim stat when rolling this break chance). Temple touch provides no break chance.
Certain abilities (such as warp reality) and attacks (such as shape-of-the-mind fist and most mental attacks) cannot be stopped by an impairment. These abilities and attacks automatically succeed on their break chance 100% of the time. (They can even break through impairments which normally do not provide a break chance, such as temple touch.)
Whim, you've mentioned before of an event called Vl'lakian Ramparts. Could you give a teaser on what it is about? How it would help the gameplay of nodeka, how it will promote less botting, and uniqueness to the game.
The Ramparts are just a logical extension of the internal AI improvements I've been implementing with each update, as well as the events that have been implemented so far (Invasion, Sigil Cits, Orator missions). It's a group-based event, with a more rigid structure than the current Invasions (i.e., a linear progression and strict group limits). The newbie improvements, some pvp improvements, and another smaller-scale event will probably be released before the Ramparts surface. (A number of outside responsibilities surfaced in the past week and a half which ate into my development time, but progress should be back on track shortly. =))
Going on for strike from the shadows, approximately how many % more damage are we looking at (while flanking) for training over 100%?
Strike from the shadows provides a flat damage increase, not a percentage-based increase. It's a pretty good number. =)
Where's the [new spell] you said was coming?
It's working, but I'm still tweaking it. I didn't quite like the original implementation; it's an important spell in terms of what I want it to do and a bit tricky to design correctly. (I want it to be a fairly effective sorcerer spell, which is potentially useful in both pvp and as a somewhat non-traditional running tool, which requires the use of the magus war-shell.)
Can you talk about the Phase of the Suns and Solar Poliir?
Sure - sunbind and solar-flame can only be used during the daytime (or a nighttime hour which is very close to daytime). The Phase of the Suns displayed via the 'time' command shows you the current Nodeka hour. There are 30 hours in a Nodeka day; nighttime hits sometime around the 20th hour. =)
How do you calculate the value of damage gained when [element of surprise] lands?
Element of surprise simply turns your attacks into flanking attacks. The amount of bonus you gain from flanking depends on your victim (players who focus on +dam over other stats tend to get flanked harder) - flanking attacks tend to be quite accurate with a fair damage bonus. If your attack gains any special bonus while flanking (such as the precision pierce from archer's competence, which deals double damage while flanking), element of surprise will trigger that as well.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
FQ will be on Thursday this week
Featured Questions #7 will be a little late this week, due to outside commitments. Sorry for the wait - the article will be up this Thursday!
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